Buying Books

You can always find textbooks for your classes in the bookstore of your campus. This is probably the fastest way, you don't have to worry about picking the right one (they probably have some tags with course numbers), you can usually return them, especially if you drop the class. However, this is usually the most expensive choice.

In this page there are some alternatives, that you can consider if you are buying your textbooks with some advance and you want to save some money.
Clicking any of the links in this page should take you to the specific textbook search mask where you can enter the ISBN or the title of the textbook you're looking for.

Amazon.com

On Amazon.com you can usually find textbooks at their regular price and sometimes there is a little discount on that (5%-15%). In some other cases the discount can be higher. Remember that on Amazon.com you can also buy from other merchants that are affiliated to Amazon.com, the ones you can find clicking on Used and new in every item description. Keep in mind that buying directly from Amazon.com means
  • brand new books
  • easy return policy
  • fast order shipping
  • next day shipping is available

while buying from the affiliated merchants require you to

  • check if the book is new or used in the description
  • check that it is a US edition and not an international edition (see Abebooks paragraph below) and check if it is the last edition
  • accept a little bit slower order processing
  • usually choose 3 day shipping, rarely 5 or more (even if, if the seller is in California or Nevada, it usually takes few days even if the description says more).

Of course buying from affiliated merchants allows you to get best deals. In all the cases I bought books from affiliated merchants (personal experience) I always had my book shipped in 1 day and delivered to my mailbox in few days. But it's not guaranteed, while it is if Amazon is shipping.

Remember that if you have Amazon Prime membership (which gives you free shipping and can be a good idea if you use Amazon intensively), it only applies to Amazon shipped books, not to the affiliated merchants' books.

Selling your textbooks on Amazon.com

Another important thing about Amazon.com: it is one of the easiest way to sell textbooks too. Just click on the square banner and you'll go to a page with two different section:

  • Buy a textbook, where you can enter the data you know about the book you're looking for (author, ISBN, title, edition, …) and you will get a page of results;
  • Sell a textbook, where you can sell your used book on Amazon! For sure, this is the easiest way to reach a huge amount of students looking for used textbooks. Just enter the ISBN of your book and a step by step wizard will guide you.

Abebooks.com

image-2625174-10362983 Abebooks.com is a website where you can buy mainly used books, international edition books and old edition books. You sometimes can find a new, last US edition book, but it's not common at all. The good thing is that prices are usually low, very very low. You can buy textbooks with few dollars, really, if you start looking for them with some advance before the term starts. Just consider:
  • shipping is not as fast as Amazon.com, both because they use slow shipping services and because usually they ship from abroad (Hong Kong, India, Taiwan,…)
  • you can get a used book: this is clearly stated in the description, even if the book condition can vary and you have to trust the seller description about that;
  • you can get an international edition: again, it's stated in the item description. An international edition has exactly the same content of the US edition, but it's usually paperback and not hardcover, black and white and not color printing, etc… In the worst case, you can have some foreign language (and alphabet) lines on the cover, rarely inside;
  • returns are complicated, also because you would have to ship abroad the returned book;
  • you can get an old edition: usually the one-before-the-last edition is fine, you should find everything. But it can be a little bit annoying to look for the exercises the professor assign you in class.

This doesn't mean that there are only cons, on the contrary! Personally, this is my first place where to look for textbooks at the beginning of the quarter!
Clicking on the square banner, you can go directly to the textbook page on Abebooks.com, where you can search textbooks by their ISBN.

Bunches of Books

lg98h48x20MPTPSOURMONQVTSPQ Bunches of Books is a website where you can find some good offers on textbooks. They also have a Buyback service so that you can easily sell your used textbooks to them.

Half.com

hk98r6Az42ORVRUQWTOQPTYUSSU Half.com is a website by Ebay in which you can buy and sell used textbook for very good prices. At the same time you'll get an Ebay account, that can always be useful!

Phatcampus.com

image-2625174-10427673 PhatCampus.com

Bookbyte.com

image-2625174-10365061 On Bookbyte.com you can both buy and sell textbooks.

Booksamillion.com

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